Los Californianos respects the privacy of our members, benefactors, and other people who interact with us. This privacy policy describes what personal information we collect, how it is used and kept safe, and how to contact us about this policy.

This version of the policy is effective as of the date shown above. We may change or update this policy from time to time. If you are not already on our website, www.loscalifornianos.org, please go to ​www.loscalifornianos.org/privacy.html to see the most recent version of the privacy policy.

Our key message to you

We understand the importance of keeping your personal information, and that of your family, safe:

We do not sell, rent, lease, barter, or give away any personal information for use by any other organization or business.

You can limit what information about you is published in the membership roster that we periodically distribute only to our Regular and Historian Members.

To assist us in verifying the eligibility of people applying for membership, we create and maintain family trees of Hispanic people who were in Alta California prior to the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and their descendants. We do not disclose information about living people who are in these trees.

We encourage you to read the rest of our privacy policy so that you have a more complete understanding of it.

What information we collect

If you are a member or are applying for membership, Los Californianos collects personal information from you, including:

Names of other Los Californianos members to which you are related, and how they are related to you

Names of your ancestors, and the dates and locations of their birth/baptism, marriage, and death/burial

Other identifying information that may be on documents you submit to us to establish your lineage, including birth, baptismal, marriage, and death certificates

The names and years of birth of other living people who share a common ancestor with you, and how they are related to you, if you think those people may apply for membership in Los Californianos in the future

If you are a benefactor, Los Californianos collects personal information from you, including your name and address. You might volunteer other personal information, including your telephone number, e-mail address, and information on why you made a donation to us.

If you fill in a form on a Los Californianos website, we may collect some personal information from you or you may volunteer some personal information, specific to the situation.

If you correspond with Los Californianos by e-mail or in some other way, you may volunteer some personal information or we may request some personal information, specific to that correspondence.

Los Californianos does not collect credit card information. We collect limited financial information when processing checks that pay for membership dues or fees, Los Californianos event fees, purchases made from us, or that are contributing funds to us. Our financial institutions may provide us with limited financial information on those transactions in periodic statements or when we access our account information. We do not collect financial account information about you from authorized third-parties that process electronic payments you make to us through them.

Los Californianos websites do not save "cookies" on your computer’s storage device as a way to provide a temporary history of actions or settings, except from "online shopping" pages or pages used to log into a "members only" section. Like most web servers that host websites, the web servers which host our websites may collect and store in their logs certain information that your web browser sends when you request a page from our website.

How we use that information

If you are a member or are applying for membership, Los Californianos uses the personal information we collect from you to:

Process your membership application and verify that you meet the eligibility requirements of our organization

Process your registration for an event sponsored by Los Californianos;

Maintain our membership roster

Add to and update our family trees of Hispanic people who were in Alta California prior to the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and their descendants

Send periodic notices and newsletters to you

Send annual dues notices and reminders to you

Los Californianos uses our family trees of descendants of Hispanic people to:

Los Californianos periodically distributes a printed copy of a partial or full membership roster only to our Regular Members and Historian Members. The roster title page states that the roster is not to be given to or used by non-members. If you are a member, your personal information in the roster includes your name, membership number, address, phone number, e-mail address, and the surnames of your Hispanic ancestors. You may request that some or all of your personal information be excluded from the roster by following the process described under "Contacting us" later in this policy.

If you are a benefactor, Los Californianos uses the personal information we collect from you to:

Thank you for your donations and send receipts to you

Maintain a history of your donations for internal use and tax purposes

Develop fund-raising programs

Communicate with you about news, fund-raising programs, and other Los Californianos activities

If you fill in a form on a Los Californianos website, or correspondence with us by e-mail or in some other way, we use the personal information we collect from you to:

Respond to your questions or comments

Fulfill an order you place

Maintain our membership roster

If you volunteer personal information as part of a pregunta (question) or respuesta (answer) you submit on a "Queries" page on a Los Californianos website, we may include that information when we post your text to our "Queries" pages. The posted information will be visible to the public and Los Californianos has no control over how that information might be collected, used, or disclosed by others.

Los Californianos does not review or analyze the log files collected by our web servers on a regular basis. We may use the logs to assist in resolving a website issue that is reported to us.

Keeping your information safe

Los Californianos is committed to protecting your personal information from unauthorized access, use, or improper disclosure. We also comply with the privacy laws of the State of California and the United States of America in order to protect your personal information.

Los Californianos stores your personal information on a limited number of local computers. Access to the personal information on those computers is restricted to authorized members of Los Californianos. Los Californianos does not use Internet-based storage repositories to store personal information.

Los Californianos stores your personal information on paper. Access to those papers is restricted to authorized members of Los Californianos.Some of your personal information may be transmitted by Los Californianos over the Internet, including when:

A Los Californianos Director, Officer, or Committee Member, in performance of their duties in the organization, sends an e-mail to you or receives an e-mail from you

A Los Californianos e-mail distribution list is generated and provided to a Los Californianos Director, Officer, or Committee so they can send a communication to members

When e-mails containing personal information are transmitted over the Internet, copies of those e-mails may be stored temporarily or archived as part of the standard operating procedures for e-mail delivery services. Los Californianos does not control those e-mail services or how long any copies may be retained.Los Californianos does not sell, rent, lease, barter, or give away any personal information for use by any other organizations or businesses. We may include notices and information from other organizations or businesses in standard Los Californianos communications sent to all members. Personal information is shared with third-parties only to the extent required to:

Complete a financial transaction initiated by you, such as depositing a check for membership dues or a donation

Use the U.S. Postal Service or a shipping company to send to you Los Californianos correspondence or an item you purchased from us

Comply with the laws of the State of California or the United States of America, or an order issued by a court of competent jurisdiction

Los Californianos websites contain links to third-party websites. The Los Californianos privacy policy does not apply to those third-party websites. You should read the privacy policy of those websites before allowing your personal information to be collected by them.

Children's privacy

Los Californianos does not knowingly collect information from, or target our websites to, children who are under 13 years of age. Children under 13 years of age must have the permission of their parents or legal guardians before submitting or posting any information on our websites. Upon request from a parent or legal guardian, Los Californianos will provide to that parent or legal guardian a description of the personal information collected from their child, and will stop using, maintaining, and collecting personal information from that child.

Contacting us

If you have questions about the Los Californianos privacy policy, if you want to update your personal information in our records, or if you want to have some or all of your personal information restricted from use, please contact our Membership Secretary by e-mail at sarh.lopez@gmail.com or write to: